24th annual Psychology Day sparks students interest in internships

Students attended presentations hosted by psychology professors and panels for graduate schools, along with learning information about internships on Psychology Day on Monday.

Cal State Fullerton hosted the 24th annual Psychology Day in the Titan Student Union from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m.

The event was primarily organized by the Psychology Department Student Association, Latin Student Psychological Association and Psi Chi, a national honors society.

Hi PDSA members??Tomorrow Monday 11th we have our annual PSYCHOLOGY DAY ! ? We have 2 amazing guest speakers Dr. Aaron Seitz and Dr. Kendall Bronk. We will see [email protected] Pavilions from 11am- 4pm. We will be providing lunch! We are going to be selling our awesome merch as well!? pic.twitter.com/evmUoucQNC

Andrea Joya, the membership coordinator for the Psychology Department Student Association, said she liked being able to expose different fields within psychology to over 200 of the event’s attendees.

Jennifer Cazares, the president of the Psychology Department Student Association, said she enjoyed being more involved in the process of making Psychology Day happen for its 24th year in a row.

“It was a lot of work; I’ll tell you that it was a lot of work. It’s all student organized. Faculty is there to support us, but it’s not them planning it, it’s the students,” Cazares said.

Cazares added that the event was mainly for psychology students, but could be helpful to those who are interested in psychology as well.

“In general, psych is important for everyday human interaction, so I think it would be beneficial for everyone,” Cazares said.

Genesis Avilez, a kinesiology major, is in her second semester at CSUF, and attended the event to get extra credit for her psychology class.

“If I was a psych major, I feel like this would be beneficial because they are talking about internships,” Avilez said. “I think it would definitely be interesting.” Avilez said.

At the internship panel, six different local organizations had representatives come to the event to inform students about internship opportunities.

Doug Brown, the community involvement manager for Olive Crest, a non-profit organization that aims to prevent and protect children from child abuse, was one of the representatives at the event.

“Olive Crest is a growing organization that’s serving over a thousand kids everyday. We need lots of people to support us and at the same time learn about the social work fields,” Brown said.

Other organizations informed students about their resources, including the New Hope Crisis Counseling Hotline, Mental Health Association of OC and Fullerton Parks and Recreation.

Brown said he wants to train interns and help them get real-world experience. He added that Psychology Day is important because it brings together the two areas of what students study in the classroom and how it translates into client care.

“I think a day like this connects those students who are studying this rich material to the actual clients who they’re going to be working with out in the field,” Brown said.

Jacob Alderson, a second year psychology major, said he attended the event for the first time.

“It was cool, I liked it. It’s good for me to get exposed to different internship stuff. Especially because it’s like my first time seeing it,” Alderson said.

Like many of the students, Alderson said he came to receive extra credit, but also learned helpful information.

“It’s really easily accessible to find an internship and find a place that you can work with. It can seem kind of daunting, but there’s going to be plenty of people who are willing to offer an internship,” Alderson said.

Cazares said there was a lot of information students could utilize from the panels.

“It’s nice to see everyone coming and enjoying themselves and seeing what they could do for themselves in the future career wise. I think that’s great,” Cazares said.

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